Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Honourable Deputy Speaker, I start by saying what we’ve heard here this morning and in budget Estimates about minister Duigan’s conduct is deeply concerning. The minister’s been caught red‑handed punishing a community organisation simply for looking to make sure their future would be secured regardless of who formed government. It really is an indictment on this minister that he won’t just apologise and stump up. If he had integrity, that’s what he would do. It’s an indictment on this government and on the Premier that there hasn’t been an intervention to make sure that that happens.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the political weaponisation of taxpayer money by this government. We’ve seen pork barrelling by this government at a gross scale at successive elections. We’ve seen money secretly awarded to organisations without any proper process, seemingly purely because of the personal relationships involved. There’s also a range of outstanding questions about the integrity of members of this government.
We know that there are two longstanding Integrity Commission investigations into MPs and these have dragged on for three years. In fact, the Integrity Commission recently confirmed that one of these investigations had been delayed because the MP under investigation told the commission that they couldn’t have access to their records due to parliamentary privilege. That is remarkable. As the commission has pointed out, even Adam Brooks – or Terry Brooks, it might have been – cooperated fully with their investigations into him. Now we have an MP who has apparently refused to do the same. We have to wonder what that MP is trying to hide. Did they make that decision based on legal advice? If so, did the taxpayer cover that legal advice? We sure hope not, but who knows? What we do know is that the taxpayer has paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal fees for government MPs.
There is a complete lack of transparency about who this money is being spent on or why it is being spent. In trying to get to the bottom of this issue in budget Estimates, the Greens asked every minister if they’d been involved in Supreme Court matters and if they had received taxpayer funds to cover their legal fees. Despite some attempts from Mr Jaensch at interfering with those questions, we actually got straight answers from almost every single minister. It’s a rare occasion that you get a straight answer in this place but, in this case, we did across the board, with one notable and concerning exception.
Every other minister engaged with our questions and provided answers, but minister Howlett completely refused to do so. This refusal begs the question: why? Why is minister Howlett unable to say whether she’s involved in Supreme Court proceedings? Every other minister clearly said that they were not. Surely, she would say the same if there was nothing to see here. Why won’t minister Howlett tell us if she’s had legal fees covered by the taxpayer? It’s public money, its public interest, but no answers.
There’s no justification for not answering these questions, as shown by the example set by other ministers, in particular minister Ogilvie. Minister Ogilvie was in the awkward position of having to admit that she’d had some of her legal fees paid for by the taxpayer, yet she didn’t dodge the question: to her credit. We don’t know why she’s had these costs covered and we call on the minister to provide that information. At least she fessed up to the basic fact, there was some transparency, and it was welcome. This is public money, and the public has a right to know. Instead, Tasmanians are still being kept in the dark.
The Greens are really concerned about this lack of transparency because, in our experience, when the Liberals are trying to hide something, when the Liberals are playing secret squirrel, there’s usually something to worry about. That’s why we are saying that minister Howlett should answer these questions. Has she been the subject of, or a party to, a Supreme Court matter? Has she had legal fees covered by the taxpayer?
It’s why we’re calling on the government to provide the bare minimum of transparency by giving us the full list of MPs who have had the taxpayer fund their lawyers, how much has been spent on each of them, and the reasons why.
Members – Hear, hear.
